


Royal Race

by LivingintheFifthDimension



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29773311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivingintheFifthDimension/pseuds/LivingintheFifthDimension
Summary: ROYAL AU: Sesshomaru was always going to be king, but when his intolerance and mean spirited tendencies convince his parents that he can’t bridge the gap between human and demon kind he hatches a plan. A human wife and an abominable spawn should show the world that Sesshomaru was as tolerant as any other half witted, half blooded moron.However, when InuYasha turns out to be more adept that originally believed, Sesshomaru finds himself in a race for his birthright. Can he trick his parents before coronation day or will InuYasha take the crown and the kingdom?
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Inu no Taishou/Izayoi, Inu no Taishou/Sesshoumaru's Mother, Sango/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

InuYasha sat in the grass, watching as the birds went about their way overhead. The sun was warm on his face, soaking into the skin as his family lounged around him on a soft, pale blanket. 

“Your choices are brilliant and accomplished young women,” father seemed to be trying to negotiate with his stubborn older son as InuYasha listened on. Maybe he didn’t understand why he and Sesshomaru had to be out in society at the same time, but he was not as displeased as his brother seemed to be. 

Watching their parents made him long for the days when his woman would run her fingers through the ends of his hair while their sons ran amuck amongst the gardens. 

He grew up watching and following along as Sesshomaru ripped roses from their bushes and dug up the tulips in righteous protest. Maybe if he’d known that the cause of his brother’s protest was his own existence he’d have been less content to follow along. 

Still. Those days were precious to him and he was eager to watch his own silver haired spawn do as he had.

“Princesses are often not to my tastes. Concubines make fine heirs,” Sesshomaru would not look upon the paintings sent for his review. Instead, he kept his eyes planted firmly on the book in his grasp. “As shown.” That last comment stuck InuYasha in the face like a bee sting. 

Even growing up together had not taken away Sesshomaru’s disdain for halfbreeds. 

There was a heavy silence that made a peaceful day uncomfortable as their parents struggled to navigate the minefield he’d dropped them in. Without a care in the world, he returned to his reading. 

“Scared no one will be able to tolerate you?” 

“I am not a kind man,” Sesshomaru murmured, lazy as a cat in sunlight. He wasn’t an entirely hideous man when he let the light of day reflect off his sleek, silver hair and alabaster skin. Sometimes, when he was quiet and reading and keeping his mildly prejudiced comments to himself, InuYasha found himself envious of his otherworldly beauty. “But even I have the good sense to not add one more…” he silence spoke louder than any slur ever could, “consider it charity that your unsightly race will die with you.” 

Mama Izayoi flushed red with justifiable anger, her hands stilling in Mama Kimi’s hair as she grappled with her ever present, overwhelming emotions. 

“Why must you be so nasty?” Everything in her stance betrayed the tears she couldn’t stop from falling. Delicate, kind, loving, to make Izayoi cry -no matter how effortless it may be- was a universally recognized crime. 

Sesshomaru scowled at her, helpless when she clutched the pendant she wore about her neck every moment of every day of her life. 

The mangled head of a budding tulip had been the gift Sesshomaru had given her after years of pissing in her shoes. He couldn’t only vaguely remember the day she’d received it, but he knew she held it tightest when she wanted to remember the boy she’d held that day, when he was being particularly hard to love. 

“InuYasha started it.” 

She seemed to wither, like a sunflower with no sun. 

Mama Kimi was brazen where Izayoi was timid and -while he dodged the shoe- he could not dodge the book that smacked him in that stupid looking crescent on his forehead. 

“Apologize or you’ll be crossing the river with coins over your eyes, you mean spirited dog.” 

“Pot? Meet kettle.” He dodged the second shoe she hurled in his direction, “I will not apologize when he started it.” 

“It was a joke!” InuYasha insisted finally, “you’ve insulted all of me for a joke.” 

Sesshomaru shrugged as he gazed at the woman he would not call mother, “and it’s somehow my fault that you're not funny?” With a long suffering sigh he tugged one of his brother’s twitching, white ears, “Apologies for insulting your very existence.” 

It was hardly a sincere apology, but if it would stop Izayoi from sniffling into their father’s chest then he would accept it. 

“Still not marrying a human.” When a third shoe came flying in his direction, he added, “for personal reasons.”

oOo

“Mother,” InuYasha sat perfectly still as Mama Kimi presented him with those he was allowed to choose from at the upcoming ball. “There was a princess in Sesshomaru’s batch that looked my type more than his.” 

Which was a bad attempt at impassivity. 

He’d seen a glimpse of her raven hair, accented in blue and something clicked into place. To be brought to life by a rendering of a person was surely a sign of the phenomenon that his parents spoke so fondly of. 

Bonding. Mating. Imprinting. 

Whatever it was called he was sure that if given the chance she would be his million yen ticket. 

“You know how your brother can be. It’s not worth the fuss.” 

“But he hasn’t even agreed to get married! Shouldn’t I get first pick since I’m being cooperative?” 

She ruffled the hair between his ears, “it does not, because -while your brother is a prick- he is also a power hungry prick. If the only way he takes the crown is taking a bride then he will.” 

“Betrayed by my own mother.” Sesshomaru scowled at the both of them, “a prick am I?” He placed one clawed hand over his heart in a low effort show of distress. “To think… I came here at Izayoi’s behest to deliver this aromatic bundle.” 

The smell of cinnamon and sugar hit InuYasha like a bag of rocks.

“Maru. My love, my son, hand over the cookies.” 

“What a different tune you’re singing, mother. Your loyalties waver a touch too easily for my liking.” 

He glanced at the bundle again, “if you can catch me then you’re free to take them, but if you can’t then I shall feed the koi.” 

“You rotten child, koi can’t eat pastries.” 

“I’m not seeing how that’s any of my business.” 

He was faster than InuYasha by a landslide, but that didn’t stop him from lunging for the lavender wrapped treats. “The koi were a gift for me. You’d better not kill them.” 

The stone floor bit into his shoulder as he caught his brother’s foot in his chest. 

“If you’re so fond of them, then I suggest you stop moving in slow motion.” 

Mama was a demon just as her son was, but she did not spend her days honing her agility or playing swords with Toga. He danced around the two of them with a condescending kind of boredom. 

It wasn’t until their father came around the corner, led by his nose, that Sesshomaru’s face lit itself with a special kind of glee. 

“Toga, tell your son to hand over the sweets.” Mama Kimi took a shuddering breath, swearing to herself to go on a run one of these days. 

“Father, I’m well within my rights. My own mother called me a prick.”

“Son,” his eyebrow quirked as he watched him toy with his mother and brother, “you are a prick.” 

InuYasha nearly caught the cloth, but found himself gripping empty air as that bastard man began to float. 

“Didn’t ask if it was true or not.” 

“How about this,” Toga began stretching his tired joints, his golden eyes trained only on the moving parcel that had drawn him out of his room to begin with. “If I can take that from you in less than a minute then you get married to a human woman without another complaint.” 

Sesshomaru considered that, his hubris clouding the lines of possibility. Their father was a King to a Kingdom with a military so thorough -so universally feared- that it realigned the way the world saw demonkind as a whole, but Sesshomaru had always been overly confident. 

And -on very special occasions- very stupid.

“If you can take this from me in under thirty seconds I will not complain about taking a human wife, but I will choose whoever I’d like. No interferences and no compromises.” 

Mama Kimi was at her mate’s side as she whispered her hopes into his pointed ear. “In return you will give me three grandchildren.” 

“So… if I am to pick a woman to please me, I have to allow her to please me?” She grimaced at the crude way he’d put it, but didn’t argue with him, “what a deal.”

Kimi pushed for an answer. 

“I will do as the heaven’s intended as many times as is necessary to create your heirs, but if it takes you more than thirty seconds then I will not marry at all.” 

Toga scoffed at his son, “ready?” 

He said he was, but it was over before it began. InuYasha was unhealthily giddy when the parcel landed in his hands and Sesshomaru went slamming into the stone so hard it sent a crack up the wall. 

“Break his pride, not his face.” Mama Kimi pushed her husband away and pulled her limp son into her arms. Her gentle fingers brushed away the blood that dripped down his forehead and slid between furrowed brows. 

InuYasha couldn’t bring himself to feel too bad for him. 

“If I didn’t knock him out he’d have kept trying to fight. It was an act of self preservation.” Unmoved, she hooked her hands beneath his shoulders and the curve of his legs. 

“Your point?” The chill in her eyes silenced her husband once and for all. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Izayoi and I are going to fuss over our baby.” 

She was long gone when Toga sighed, “even when he loses, he wins.”


	2. Chapter 2

Sesshomaru only knew he’d gone too far once it was too late. 

“He’s not changing his mind,” his mother sounded weary, as if everything were her own fault. “I don’t know where we went so wrong.” She wasn’t one for tears or dramatics, but he could hear the cracking of her voice. 

Some small, neglected part of him felt sick to have been the cause of her heartache. The rest of him was indignant. There was not a doubt in his mind that they were talking about him. 

“Kimi, darling,” Izayoi’s voice was comforting and indulgent, all caramel and chocolate in the face of her wife’s frustration. “Some demons never get over their disdain for humankind. It’s no one’s fault.” 

“She’s right,” if there was one person he expected to speak any modicum of sense it was his father. It was him who instilled the importance of strength and purity into his young mind. Now he was siding with two delusional old crones? “But it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t allow him to become king should this continue.” 

Static. Cold. Panic. 

His entire life had been spent in pursuit of his birthright yet now they spoke of taking it away with such disregard. He’d read all the scrolls, memorized all of the laws. Humans, demons, kami, he’d shaken hands with every ally on his father’s roster and made no complaints. 

What did his personal feelings matter when he kept his more vapid thoughts between his family and himself? 

“Toga,” Izayoi spoke again, quiet as she thought something over, “that would destroy him. He’s spent his entire life-.” 

“You think I don’t know that?” His father was being gruff with her -something that Sesshomaru was less than pleased about, “he’s my son, my pride and joy, but if we leave him in charge as he is now… InuYasha will never lead a normal life.” 

The irony of Izayoi being his most vicious defender was not lost on him, “we don’t know that.” 

“You heard him the other day,” his mother had ceased her waterworks for the time being, “abomination. What the king does the people emulate. If we let him take charge then what about his brother?” 

Naturally, the thing standing in his way was InuYasha. It was always InuYasha. Since childhood he’d been asked to be less for his younger brother’s sake. Move slower, hit gentler, be kinder- it was always InuYasha who indulged in someone else’s sacrifice. 

He wouldn’t be surprised if they expected Sesshomaru to be the one to tutor him. 

“They love each other,” Izayoi insisted, “he’s just… a bit cruel in the way he speaks with him. InuYasha is often no better-.”

“Zai,” Toga would have put his heavy hand upon her shoulder in that moment, “InuYasha’s jeering is harmless. A few jabs about his brother’s temperament are nothing in comparison to the sheer disgust Sesshomaru has for the other boy. You say he’s only cruel, but -my love- a cruel king is not what our people deserve.” 

“Living life as an abomination is not what InuYasha deserves.” 

Izayoi sighed, “I seem to be outnumbered,” and he felt his skin go cold. Part of him was begging her to keep fighting. The rest of him wanted to run away. There were infinite places in the world and if he wasn’t wanted there then he could surely find some other place to be. “But, if he could change?” His ears pricked at the hopefulness that painted her words in a million optimistic colors. “Imagine the good his mind could do, if he could only see past those barriers?” 

When neither of his biological parents said a word she continued, spurred on by their uncertainty. 

“He’s shown me his plans,” she pushed, “well… I kind of found the notebook and he was too embarrassed to admit I’d outsmarted him. He’s got ideas for orphans and battle strategies for the men under his command and treaty ideas.” She sounded exasperated, “I can’t stand to see all of that brilliance go to waste.”

His stomach felt sour. Brilliance. The woman he often only saw as a nuisance was the only one defending him. She thought him brilliant. 

“One more year,” that was her pitch. “Give him one more year. If finding a human bride does not change him then we will crown InuYasha and be done with it.” 

His mother sighed, “no one changes in a year.” 

“Oh? I seem to vividly recall the anti human rhetoric you both instilled in him when he was still knee high to a grasshopper. You were the first to call me a vile whore, Kimi.” 

“That’s not fair. For all of my mistakes, I love you now. I’ve made up for my past-.”

“Yet you don’t believe your son can do the same?” 

Sesshomaru dared a glance around the corner, trying to get a better look through the crack of the door. Izayoi was trapping his mother against the desk, her kind expression twisted imploringly. “InuYasha and I were enough to change you after a millennia. There’s no reason why he should not be as bewitched with a gentle, human princess as you were with a gentle, human whore.” 

“Both of you need to calm down.” Toga pulled them apart, “how do we know he’s changed? He can be a convincing actor when he wants to.” 

“Simple. We don’t tell him. We wait a year and then we go from there, but I know…” she clutched her pendant as she gazed up as his father, “this is the right choice.” 

They all seemed to mull that over for a while and he considered making his escape before it was too late, but then his father spoke again and he held his breath, “the boy who gave you a dead flower and the man we know are not the same.” 

“Maybe not, but the man who helps me beat the flour and butter for your snickerdoodles and the man we know are.” 

oOo

Sesshomaru spent the next week avoiding his family. 

It wasn’t until his traitorous mother came knocking that he had the energy to acknowledge any of them. Traitorous. Disloyal. He could insult them for hours if given the chance. 

“What’s got you so annoyed?” 

Telling the truth would do him no good, “the library was freshly stocked. I couldn’t be bothered with you all or your incessant babbling.” Her shoulders sagged with relief. 

“Have you looked over the girls we compiled for you? I know you said you’d make your own choices,” she opened the file and set it in his lap, “but this is a good place to start, don’t you think?” 

His father mistook his flat expressions for acting. He was not acting so much as trying to hold his tongue. Izayoi did not plead on his behalf for him to muck it up with unnecessary emotion. 

“I’m not interested in them. If I’m not allowed to search for my mate then the least you could do was compile attractive women.” 

He was being unfair. A number of the women in the file were fairly pretty, but he was bitter and his wounds still felt fresh so he spared no barb. It also didn’t help that the smell of cinnamon was starting to drive him a little nutty.

Whenever he thought himself to be free of the coiling in his gut the smell of cinnamon came rolling through an open window or a crack in the stone and he’d be overcome all over again. 

“Human women have a different kind of beauty-.”

“-no shit.” He simply wasn’t interested in their half assed offerings. Too many of them were plagued with yellowish, grayish hair and matching eyes. 

“Your foul mood is noted and unappreciated. What’s got you so upset?” Her hand was small on his, but he was incapable of disregarding the disloyalty. She’d been fine to strip him of years of hard work for the sake of some mutated mongrel. 

Now he was supposed to confide in her? There was not a chance in hell. 

Still. He needed answers and telling his mother about his insuppressible urge to stick his hands down his pants seemed to be a grand start to her punishment. He didn’t have to tell her about his hurt feelings or the increasing longing that seemed to weigh upon his mind like bricks.

“I’m being driven to madness by the bewitching smell of cinnamon.” A strawberry blush blossomed across her nose almost instantly, “in exactly the way you’re thinking. There's no point in leaving my room when I’ll be forced to return the moment the wind blows weird.” 

“You have a father, you know. He’d be better suited to dealing with such problems.” 

The smell carried on the breeze this time and he pulled his knees up to his chest. 

“If you hadn’t demanded that father get rid of the concubines I would have no need to have this conversation with you.” 

She hadn’t been willing to risk another illegitimate child and Izayoi had agreed wholeheartedly, ‘if I could seduce you then so could someone else’. Now she was paying the price. 

“Before I continue touching these portraits… did you use any of them as… inspiration?” 

“I think I’ve made it clear that they aren’t my type.” 

She held up a princess at random, one of the few with dark hair that didn’t look like swamp water, “even her?” 

“Not even a twitch.” 

She stuck her pointed tongue between her lips in mild disgust, “you’re disgusting.” Better disgusting than cruel, “has this ever happened before? You’re still young. Sometimes young men are just… horny.” 

“It’s been happening once a month for about six months now, but this is the month that’s unbearable. I wasn’t even like this during puberty. If I recall correctly it was InuYasha that was humping couch cushions well into the night.” 

“When Izayoi was pregnant with InuYasha we prayed he’d be a girl. Just know that -even now- that hasn’t changed.” 

More cinnamon. Less control. His lungs felt tight and the butterflies were running amuck in his stomach making his mind feel fuzzy and his fingers all tingly. If she didn’t cough up some answers soon he’d simply have to cast her out and try again later. 

“Wait, did you say monthly?” 

He ground his teeth as he willed the window shut. Maybe if he could stop the air from flowing then he could maintain whatever was left of his sanity. 

“I’ve been able to ignore it up until now.” 

“Demons don’t ovulate monthly, so it couldn’t be a mate situation.” She tapped her chin, “unless she’s no demon? You spend a great deal of time with Izayoi so it isn’t impossible that you’d be in tune enough with humans to find a mate in one.” 

She was taking her sweet time puzzling things out, completely ignorant to the feelings raging within him. 

“But your hatred of humans seems to contradict that idea.” 

“I don’t hate humans,” he snapped, his discomfort was making him grouchy, “I only think that half demons are abominable.” 

Either way she didn’t find it likely. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, but if she’s human… if she’s human then we’ll definitely find her for you. One less sacrifice, you know?”

“And if she’s not?” 

A truly apologetic expression crossed her lips, “we’ll make sure your bride is lovely.” Gods he’d never felt so lonely, so incomplete in all his life, but he wouldn’t let it stand in his way. 

He couldn’t. 

“I love you, Maru.” She hovered in the doorway for a bit, not speaking, not moving. “And I’m so sorry I called you cruel. Mean spirited or not, you are wonderful.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ello! I forgot to point out that I make art for these bad boys on my tumblr @livinginthefifthdimension (if you’re curious).

With the end of the week came clarity. His sheets were filthy and his wrists sore, but all was well. 

Sunlight filtered through the trees, casting his hair in its golden rays. He’d found a nice place to settle down, pleased as punch when he found that the grass warmed his back. 

To think that the smell of cinnamon and fresh laundry, a scent that no longer held raging hormones or burning desire, could paint his days in such a pleasant haze was almost unthinkable. He stared blankly at the pages of a romance novel, wondering what it would be like to be by her side. 

“Lord Sesshomaru,” and then -suddenly- all was unwell, it was amazing how one bold servant could make him want to bury his head in a mop bucket. “Your mother asked me to deliver this to you.” He held out the plate, settling in next to him when no thanks was offered. “So, it may have escaped your notice but I am a bard, not a delivery boy.” 

Being InuYasha’s only friend awarded the minstrel far more liberties than he deserved, but his mindless way of speaking did not inspire Sesshomaru’s friendliness. 

“So what I want to know is why no other servant was willing to go within thirty feet of your quarters.” 

The blush that tinted the bridge of his nose was entirely against his will. 

“Even though I grew up within these walls, the maids all treat me like an outsider and so they’re entirely unwilling to tell me anything.” 

“Probably because you’re always chasing their skirts.” 

Miroku pulled the lyre from its place on his back, “if you continue to be uncooperative, I will have to serenade you, my Lord.” His fingers ran along the strings, invoking sound with such ease that Sesshomaru was almost persuaded to take him up on such an offer. 

Honestly, if Miroku weren’t one of the most insufferable men on the planet, he would have. 

“I will pay you to go away.” 

“You can tell me what you were up to.” 

Sesshomaru returned to his book, pulling the pages close to his face in an effort to block out the strumming, but it felt like the notes were bouncing off of his head like little rocks. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do? I’m sure InuYasha is lonely without you.” 

“I know for a fact that he is not. He’s gardening with Lady Izayoi.” 

“Then why don’t you go and play for mother.” 

He continued to strum, “Lady Kimi warned me not to return once I delivered your treat. So I fear you’re stuck with me.” 

And so he was stuck. He listened to the other man play song after song, content to perform for far longer than he was content to listen. It wasn’t until Izayoi came sauntering over, dancing to his tune, did Sesshomaru realize that Miroku’s placement was no accident. 

“Have either of you seen InuYasha? He’s been gone all day.”

“I have not,” Sesshomaru vacated the place he’d been occupying with a quickness, “but since I’m in a giving mood… I’ll search for you.” 

Miroku scrambled after him, that unbothered facade splintering as he held out the dessert, “but… my lord, I’ve still got one more song in my set and you haven’t even tried your dessert.” 

“You might want to explain yourself before I tell her what you’ve laced that treat with.” 

The bard paled and dropped to his knees. For all of his teasing, he often had the good sense not to try anything of this magnitude. 

“InuYasha smelled something… lovely? I’m not entirely sure, because he’s got the communication skills of a goat- a family trait, I think.” 

Sesshomaru placed his boot to the minstrel's chest, “even now you’re full of nonsense. Hurry up and tell us where that useless half breed has run off to.” 

“He didn’t tell me. He only told me to get you and Lord Toga to eat the treat so he wouldn’t have to worry about being followed.” 

“You drugged my husband?” Izayoi, too often docile and complacent, seemed to flare to life and the fires of hell were licking at her heels. “We took you in, we gave you a place when your mother decided she’d have nothing more to do with you, and this is how you repay us?” 

Sesshomaru took a step back, taking several delicate sniffs at the pastry.

“It’s not going to hurt them,” Miroku swore, he’d thrown his hands in front of his face, trying to ward off her rage as gently as he could. “Lord Toga will sleep for a while, that’s all. I promise on my honor and my life, I nor InuYasha would ever be so reckless.” 

He nearly felt bad for the bard as he begged and Sesshomaru offered him the only mercy he could -stealing Izayoi’s attention, “what else did InuYasha tell you?” 

“He said he’d found a way to get under the wall.” 

Izayoi dropped him, her sun kissed hands trembling as she took that in. Personally, he didn’t see the big deal. A bit of vicious whispering never truly hurt anyone and it wasn’t as if the people in their kingdom were foolish enough to lay hands to one of Toga’s sons, mutated or not. 

She climbed to her feet, determination making her tear tracked face look like marble, “no one but the staff has ever seen InuYasha.” He didn’t know the specifics of InuYasha’s imprisonment as his parents often only insisted that it was ‘for his own good’. “With the way people think, there’s no guarantee he’s alright.” 

“He’s a moron, not a mortal. Besides,” Sesshomaru began searching for his book, frowning when Izayoi tightened her grip on his prize. “He knows that he’s in the castle for his own protection. If he chose to disregard that then I say it’s his own right.” 

It wasn’t difficult to pluck the book from her grasp. 

“You don’t care that he could be killed.” 

If InuYasha ceased to exist, so did his problems. He wouldn’t be forced into an inter-species marriage for the sake of someone else’s mistake and he wouldn’t be riding the fence when it came to his birthright. If he were being entirely honest, he’d admit that InuYasha being killed would solve all of his problems. 

“He can handle himself,” but he also couldn’t bear to lie and say that he didn’t care. For all of InuYasha’s physical, mental, and psychological faults- they'd grown up together. He’d taken the fall for Sesshomaru’s many schemes, trusting and wide eyed in every venture. 

When they grew, it was InuYasha who never changed. No matter who was around to see, he was always his irritating little brother. 

It was InuYasha’s scent that lingered on fantastical texts when Sesshomaru had been grounded, InuYasha’s stupid ideas making Sesshomaru snort tea out of his nose, and so to say he wouldn’t care would be inaccurate. 

In the end he simply didn’t care enough. 

His hesitation had been enough for her and this time she didn’t cry. No, instead something seemed to harden within her as she regarded him. 

As if she were regarding a monster. 

“I’ll find him myself. Miroku?”

He scrambled to his feet, “I’ll accompany you. This is partially my fault anyways.” The tulip she kept around her neck everyday since the day she’d set it in resin, bounced off of his head as if it were made of rubber. 

It mocked him as it caught the sunlight of his perfect day, warned him that he was making a choice he couldn’t take back. 

The day his parents told him that he’d have a sibling, he’d peed at her feet. It had been the only way he could articulate his discontent and -naturally- he’d been punished for it. Even when he was rotten she’d come to his room with a treat. She’d run her thumb along his ear and remind him that families stuck together, families didn’t pee in each other’s shoes. 

When he threw her offerings in her face and dug his claws into her skin she would always twist her wobbly lips into a smile and tell him, ‘that hurts my feelings’. 

For three vicious years that was precisely what he wanted. He wanted her to hate him, to run for the hills and take that freakish baby with her, but then one day -when she could no longer muster that wobbly smile- he found that he regretted it all. So he leapt from his window, leaving her to choke and sniffle, and went digging through the garden. 

He was in a rush, almost desperate to patch up the wounds he’d purposefully inflicted, so he hadn’t paid much attention as he ripped the head of a tulip from its forlorn stem. 

Climbing back up to his room would take too long, he wanted to see that smile at that very moment. Not in five minutes. Not in ten. So he focused as hard as he could, wobbly as he flew, but still managing.

Technically, he’d been forbidden from flying and the reason became apparent when he crashed through the window and knocked out both of his loose front teeth. But that hadn’t mattered. He’d offered her the mangled head, lips trembling as he tried to keep his tears at bay. 

‘I’m th’orry.’ 

And she’d forgiven him. She didn’t make him tell her what he’d done wrong and she didn’t treat him like a baby. 

Instead, she’d gotten on his level and kissed the crescent upon his forehead, ‘you’ll help me preserve this, won’t you? This will mark the day that you became my son and -like my wedding rings- I’ll never take it off.’ 

To see it now, alone and abandoned- it was a knife to his chest. 

He plucked it from the grass, coiling his fingers around the resin as if it could convince his heart to beat normally again. Truthfully, he didn’t know why he cared. 

What was one more disappointed person? A great demon paved his own path regardless of the feelings that were wrecked along the way. What did it matter if she saw him as he was? 

Coward

It was less a word and more a feeling. Discontent, disgust, hope, disappointment. He could feel the red string of fate tightening about his neck like a noose, spurring him to action, giving him no chance to think it all over. 

Coward. Coward. Coward, his feet moved of their own accord, racing to disprove that screaming theorist inside his own mind. 

He stole tessaiga from his father’s hip as he slept, wasting no time on lamenting the way it burned his palm, and slipped it into his sash. 

There was nothing that Sesshomaru feared, no fate he could not bear, but -as the string tightened- he found himself bounding over the wall, flying through branches heavy with leaves. 

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. 

Taunting turned to pleading, irritation turned to desperation, and Sesshomaru pushed himself until his body felt more like light than mass. Cinnamon and laundry and blood all tightening around him, a dull chain that would squeeze until he was nothing but mush, tugging him towards the village. 

He dug his heels into the dirt, slowing himself the only way he knew how. It wasn’t often that he went racing through trees and the sudden appearance of the town made it so he didn’t have time to slow down gradually. 

Crashing into a fruit cart was not the most dignified way to come to a stop, but -as he peeled mango pulp from his tunic- he realized he had bigger problems. 

InuYasha had a very distinct scream- boyish and bordering on comical- that made it easy for Sesshomaru to pinpoint where it was coming from. He needed to hurry. 

Shaking off the dizziness that came from crashing with such force, he let the pounding in his mind lead him. 

It took Sesshomaru a moment to swallow the feelings that rolled inside of him like nausea.

A small part of him could not be more amused. 

There was a woman, tiny by any comparison, hurling abuse at a guard. ‘Incompetent’, ‘brainless’, ‘stupid’, ‘cowardly’- she spared him no discourtesy as another guard kept her at bay. It took a moment to recognize her as the woman from the portraits. Princess Kagome. 

However, the world lost its joy when he began to scan the area, searching -almost anxiously- for his useless brother.

Blood splatters caught his eye in no particular order as he shoved through the small crowd, “Lord Sesshomaru! We captured this… thing just outside the forest. We think he was headed to the castle.” An older man, probably several millennia old by the looks of him, led him to the very front of the bunches, proud to show off his prey. 

InuYasha was tied to a post, his face deformed and his skin split in too many places. Upon closer inspection Sesshomaru could see that his claws were broken in some places, missing in others- proof that he’d fought back with all he could. 

“You said you found him headed towards the castle?” 

The realization that he’d been coming home made Sesshomaru’s stomach twist again, rage was building inside of him, bubbling like magma as he tried to maintain his stoicism. In the end, InuYasha was the one who chose to leave the safety of the palace. Just as he told Izayoi earlier, InuYasha made his own stupid choices. 

So why did he want to give them matching bruises? Why did his fingers twitch as his whip budded at the tips of his claws without his permission?

“The bakery attendant reported a strange being running around with two human women. We investigated the claim, followed him into the woods, and-.”

“Beat up a man who hasn’t done anything?” Her voice scraped past her throat, sounding as pained as it would should she have swallowed glass. “Is that your idea of justice? Attacking a man solely for the way he was born?” She struggled against her binds, gazing up at them both, but pinning only him with eyes as strong and unshakable as oak. 

“Is that what you and your kingdom stand for, Lord Sesshomaru?”


	4. Chapter 4

Sesshomaru was frozen in place for a moment, stumped and staring as she challenged him so blatantly. He didn’t know where her gall came from, didn’t know how to address it when it came from the source of his daydreams.

The sun hit her in a way that made her glow and -as much as he wanted to say she was like an angel- it was the demon blood smeared across her cheeks like war paint that was really making his face burn.

His mouth was as dry as the cracked earth at his feet, his mind as blank as fresh parchment. That brilliant, red string tightened around his neck, dragging him farther and farther down.

It was merely luck that his mother landed at his side a moment later, Izayoi and Miroku perched upon her back as if she were nothing more than a royal mule. She butted him with her head, a chastising growl only serving to confuse him further.

“Mother, I’d love to entertain you, but I cannot.”

She bumped him with her snout again, demanding answers.

“The guards took him for some hellish experiment and proceeded to attack him.” His hand came to brush along the silver fur of her canine nose -an affectionate action that she didn’t seem to mind, “these two women fought on his behalf, but were overwhelmed and brought here.”

Princess Kagome flushed, a pale yellowish color, “I didn’t actually brandish a sword or anything. It was all Sango.”

“I assure you, mother, the abuse she hurled at the guards was an act of assault in and of itself. She may be better suited to InuYasha than to me, if I may be so bold.”

Her cheeks darkened again and he glanced back at the woman on the post, utterly enchanted by her ability to set the world on fire.

“All in all, he’s fine. Battered, bloodied, but nothing an afternoon of rest can’t fix.” When he gazed down at Izayoi, now standing on her own two feet at his mother’s humanoid side, “it was as I said- nothing to worry about.”

Kimi cut her eyes to the guard, her orders were silent, but there was no hesitation in them being carried out.

“You know that isn’t the point. You can’t keep this up forever.” She watched the girls snatch their items from the guard, taunting the men who’d apparently promised the woman -Sango, he thought- a great number of colorful threats.

He made a note to ensure that he disappeared.

“Mother, your expectations are unreasonable. Whether I love my brother or not,” he’d always admit to ‘not’ no matter which way the truth leaned, “we have a royal guard. There was no reason for either of you to believe that I had any obligation to show up here.”

“The guard can be cruel,” she insisted, “there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t share your sentiments and think him better off dead-.”

And something inside of him seemed to snap. It was one thing to be lectured and guilted and hated by those that were good. Izayoi was good- for years she put up with him, defended him, cared for him. When he didn’t deserve to be loved she was there to prove him wrong. Toga was good. He stood for equality and justice and loved his kingdom as truly as he loved his wives. To this day Toga had a hideous finger painting plastered on his wall and a squirrel’s skull upon his bookshelf. Kimi, his mother, she was his copy and he was hers. They were one in the same. Evil. Vile. Cruel. And so it was an entirely separate thing for someone just a foul as he was to lecture him.   
  


To him, it was as hypocritical as lecturing him for having an indigo moon on his forehead. 

“If I remember correctly,” he turned to face her, regarding her with an expression so cold it made her shudder. “It was you who spent the first three years of your marriage whispering in my ears, mother. You encouraged my hatred and now you pretend to wonder why I’m unpleasant.” 

“You told Izayoi that you loved her the day you married her, but the night of your honeymoon and every night for months you came to my bedroom and you cried. A ‘pathetic, fucking human’, a ‘home wrecking whore’.” He took a fiendish delight in the way the color drained from her cheeks.

She ordered him to be quiet, hissing at him that he’d said enough, but he couldn’t seem to find the will to stop.

“Was it your clone that put a five year old in a great, big tub with an infant and then waltzed away? I recall being told I was much too small for the adult’s tub, I recall having to stand with my arms over my head to keep from downing us both.”

He couldn’t help but wonder how much of his betrayal was feeding into his actions. If they’d spoken to him like an adult -like a king in training- then would he be so content to tear everyone down with him?   
  
Pale to puce, Kimi stared at him with rage shining in her eyes and he wondered what else she could possibly say to him. She’d fed him that line about it being difficult to watch her child make the same mistakes, but she had not raised him to be kind. 

Lessons in kindness had instead come from a woman he cherished, but didn’t respect. His mother had molded his mind in her likeness, but hated the masterpiece she’d created. 

“Kimi?” Izayoi glanced between the two of them, ashen as his mother insisted that he shut up- that he not say another word.

“This doesn’t help anyone-.”

“Maybe it helps me.” He decided finally, “maybe I’m sick of you pretending to be this kind and tolerant Queen while disparaging me for the qualities I learned from you and you alone.”

His mother ground her teeth together, “not here. Not now. Take your brother and go.” He thought about defying her, it wasn’t as if there were a conscious force on this planet that would dare make him, but he found that -with all the dirt and muck in the air, with all the anger and self hate hanging around them like smoke- he had nothing more to say. 

“As you wish.”

He hoisted InuYasha’s unconscious form from the grass, tucking him against his hip like a package. “You won’t be punished, obviously. Tell the minstrel where you’re staying and we’ll arrange for a gift to be sent your way- for the inconvenience.”

The Princess was beautiful, but it was the warrior that he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from.

“About InuYasha,” Kagome seemed to itch with the need to follow, “he’ll be alright, won’t he? Injuries like those… well, a human-.”

“My brother is not human. There’s really no reason to worry.”

She fidgeted again, her manners at war with the pulsing need to ensure his safety.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me.” She admitted, “one minute Sango and I are exploring the land that I’d likely be queen of,” he couldn’t help cocking his eyebrow at her. The confidence in which she claimed queenship over his lands was amusing, “and then the next it’s like I’m being strangled.”

He motioned for Miroku to come to his side and dumped InuYasha into his arms as if he were nothing more than a rag doll, “hold on to this for me.” Then -to Kagome- he added, “don’t expect me to entertain you.”

She yelped when one of his massive paws landed a few feet away from her, “are all of you secretly giant dogs?”

But it was Sango’s murmuring, “does this make me a beast sexual,” that made him snort. They hesitated when he laid flat, afraid to tug his fur or dig their feet in and -while their concern was touching- he had no energy to watch them mutter amongst themselves any longer.

He huffed.

“Well excuse us for trying not to hurt you!”

He grunted at her, insisting -in a tongue she couldn’t understand- that they wouldn’t hurt him. Realization dawned in her eyes, almost as if she understood, “you’ve got some explaining to do, dog man, because this is all really weird,” but she led Kagome aboard anyways.

oOo

Sesshomaru had attempted to abandon the women in his brother’s quarters after sending a servant to fetch their things, but neither had been truly willing to allow him to excuse himself.

Even when he refused to tell them anything about the mating, they held him captive. Now they were off in their respective rooms, unloading their items and making themselves at home in the very same castle they swore they were ‘just visiting’ mere hours ago.

“Nii-San?”

InuYasha hadn’t called him that since they were children and even then it was reserved for the times when he’d hurt himself doing something foolish.

“They must have really beaten you stupid.”

“You’re just jealous that I’m destined to be with that princess from your batch.”

He couldn’t allow InuYasha to continue looking so smug, “your destiny means nothing in the face of money and politics.”

“You wouldn’t.” Fluffy white ears seemed to flatten as he forced himself off of his back, “you’re not that evil.”

“I can’t see why not,” he continued, “she’s pretty enough, bold, presumably intelligent, I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t do wonders for my ambitions.”

InuYasha’s shoulders rounded, “what do you want?”

Sesshomaru nibbled his claw, pretending to mull it over -as if he hadn’t had ample time to mull it all over.

“Why do you still insist on hanging around me? I’m not particularly kind to you.”

InuYasha shrugged, but he took the time to think it over. Once upon a time he would have screamed something thoughtlessly, lacing his sentences with expletives and insults. 

“Your actions speak louder than your words. It’s shit being called names, but in the end it’s always you that treats me like your equal. You don’t censor yourself around me and you don’t treat me like I’m going to shatter if things don’t go exactly my way.” There was a moment of silence between them as InuYasha took the time to try and articulate his thoughts, “whenever I presented a project to our parents and they insisted you help me with them it was you who always reminded them that I wasn’t ‘completely stupid’.”

When Sesshomaru stayed quiet, not quite sure what any of that mattered, InuYasha continued.

“You’re not a nice person. That much isn’t up for debate, but you’re not a monster either.”

Not a monster. 

He wondered if he’d say that if he knew that he’d been willing to let him die.

“I only came to your aid because the bond demanded it. If I’m to be honest, then I’ll admit that it was no choice of my own. So maybe you should reevaluate those ideas?”

“Liar.” InuYasha grew bolder as his strength returned, “you once held your breath until you passed out because Mama Kimi told you that you have no choice but to breathe.” Her fault for taunting him, “you don’t do what you don’t want to. Maybe you hesitated, maybe you know exactly what I know and that’s what made you hesitate, but you came for me because you wanted to.”

Sesshomaru stood from his chair, feeling a little overwhelmed by his brother's candor. The day had been long and his nerves were frayed. Insulted and biting words seemed to be all he could muster. 

“You don’t stand a chance against me, half breed.” But his biting words felt more like childish insults when they hit his ears. He’d be better off calling him a ‘poopy head’ at this point.

“I wasn’t going to bother. Being king was your dream, after all, but after today… How many other half demons have the Guard terrorized? How many more people like me didn’t have anyone to come to their rescue?”

He spoke through clenched teeth, trying to regain his composure, “you don’t have to be king to change things.” Sesshomaru would be more than willing to allow him to work as his second advisor.

InuYasha shrugged again, looking so mature in that moment that it was startling, “maybe that’s true, but you don’t understand. You could never understand. I owe it to those that had no place to build a place for them.”

“You’ll never beat me.” The ‘half breed’ that he often tacked on to his sentences tasted bitter in the back of his throat, “I know all the rules. I've memorized the scrolls and the laws, I’ve got reforms already in mind. You don’t stand a chance in hell.”

“You sound scared.”

Would he look weak if he admitted that he was?

Instead Sesshomaru turned on his heels and pointed his nose skywards, “how hard can it be to quell my disdain for the mutated?” When he put it in such plain terms nothing seemed impossible. 

How hard could it be to change his thinking?

“I’ll prove that half demons don’t disgust me, I’ll have a child with those same stupid ears, and then?” He slammed the door shut with a snap, screaming through the door, “I’ll be King.”


	5. Chapter 5

The moon was high in the indigo sky when a soft knock echoed through his chambers. He was only mildly surprised to find Izayoi standing there in her nightdress, clutching her pillow as if it could protect her from his frozen gaze. 

“This is the only place where Kimi won’t follow.” 

“Mother will eventually fall asleep and then you’ll be free to pick whatever room you’d like.” 

He moved to shut the door, not interested in whatever sad story she’d try to pedal. That tulip still burned like coal in his pocket.

“Just until sunrise? I mean… how am I supposed to face her when she pretended to love me, Sesshomaru.” She crushed her pillow against her chest, clenching her fists until her knuckles were white. “She pretended to be happy to have me, told me that she loved me and my son for us. Now I find out that she’d have sooner seen him drowned. I find out that she was telling me one thing and muttering another into your ears.”

She sank to her knees, coming undone in such a raw way that he couldn’t seem to look away. 

If InuYasha was light then Izayoi weighed nothing as he dropped her on his bed, “I was going to read anyways.” There was something about watching a woman come undone outside his door that inspired him to show a bit of kindness. 

She insisted, through hiccups and sniffles, “you’re my son, come lay with me. Even if you don’t fall asleep.”

“I’m no one’s son tonight.” The window seat was comfortable and his book called for him to lose himself within the pages.

The moonlight that filtered in through the window was enough to see by, but it would seem that Izayoi would not rest until she’d gained his forgiveness. His pages were cast in a sudden golden glow, “you’ll hurt your eyes.” 

When she received no answer he found himself being pulled in her embrace, his cheek pressed flush against the curve of her chest. “I thought you hated him. After years of looking up to you and following you around… InuYasha -my baby- he loves and admires you so much, even if he spends all day calling you grouchy. To think that one son hated the other… well, it was too much to bear.” 

“Noted.”

“You will stop treating me so coldly,” she demanded, but there was no authority behind such a comment. She’d never tried to force him to do anything and he doubted she’d try today, “I mean it. I’m sorry I got so angry. I’m sorry I took it off.” Her grip about his head tightened, squeezing the malice from his pores. 

It wasn’t like he enjoyed being at odds with his parents, life for him was much easier when everyone got along. 

“I shouldn’t have hesitated.” He admitted finally, “a brother, from mine or another mother, is worth more than its weight in butter. If the price I’d pay -for all my vanished troubles, meant I would be without him for even a day… then I could proudly say that there is no way. For a brother is a brother, see it written on my tomb, that a brother is worth more than a million tulips in bloom.” 

She nearly dragged him off the window seat, holding him by the face and raining kisses along the crown of his head. The crying kicked up again as she blubbered that the poem went, “a zillion, not a million,” but he insisted that his memory was impeccable and he said what he said. 

“You’ve set the bar for your mother’s apology impossibly high,” she told him once she’d fastened her necklace about her neck again, “I’m afraid that if she doesn’t recite one of my poems then she will forever be lost to me.” 

“Did she really leave you all alone with InuYasha?” 

She curled into his side, the same way he always had when he’d been scolded or denied, resting her head against his collar. 

“It was a long time ago and mother loves InuYasha as dearly as she loves anyone.” He pretended not to feel the way tears soaked into his sleeves, “I read once that women are prone to bouts of mania in the face of trauma.” 

“Trauma?” Her voice took on a shrill quality, as if she couldn’t understand how it could sting to find that your husband- your perfect half- could go and lose himself in another. 

“Mother says that she allowed the concubines to stay because father insisted they had nowhere else to go. Most of you were recruited from the villages when you were young and then you grew up within the castle walls as servants. Those who didn’t want to serve anymore moved on to be concubines -once they were old enough to make that choice. So, once father and mother were married there wasn’t really an ethical way to cast a dozen ruined-,” she pinched the skin that covered his ribs with a vengeance and he amended his comment. 

“-to cast a dozen unmarried women out onto the streets. He swore that he’d never betray her that way.” 

Izayoi fidgeted at his side, braiding the ends of his hair despite the fact that he’d long since made it clear that he hated having his hair played in. “I’m aware that being the other woman is not my crowning achievement.” 

“Not the point here, it’s less about you and more about father. I don’t know what the bond is like once it’s completed, but even now I can feel that woman in my mind. She was up for a while, fretting and trying to exhaust herself.” Her dreams were pleasant, the calm contentment that whispered in the back of his mind assured him of it. 

“If the texts are to be believed she’s the part of me that is compassionate and selfless, while I’m the part of her that is studious and levelheaded. We share our determination and ruthlessness and create a single soul.” He hoped she was following this draw out explanation, “can you imagine finding someone so wonderful and perfect -someone who you’ve unconsciously searched for in every bit of sunlight- and then feeling the way they longed for someone else?” 

“Infidelity isn’t such a petty offense amongst inuyoukai, you must understand that making three pieces out of two is only possible if those pieces get broken.” 

He could almost pat himself on the back for seeming so mature. 

“I understand that I shouldn’t have allowed it.” She told him solemnly, “but, we fell for one another before we even realized what was happening. When you were still an infant he brought me to meet you. You hated me even then. I mean, you cried and cried and cried until your father took you back in his arms.”

“Father says I’ve always been good at sniffing out bullshit.” 

She snorted, “watch your language, my love. My only point is that I fell for your father and I loved you so much longer than you can ever imagine. Things got complicated when I got pregnant. Neither of us were willing to be apart any longer, but he loved Kimi just as much as he loved me.” 

What he’d have given to hear that conversation as an adult. 

“She hated me, obviously, called me terrible names and refused to speak to me. If not for Toga I don’t think I’d have survived that encounter. He had to restrain her several times.” 

All very reasonable. Any man that moved in on his bond mate was as good as dead and there wasn’t a force alive that would stand in his way. 

“But after a while she warmed up to me. We went on dates and got to know one another.” Those dates -as far as he was aware- consisted of getting on his childish nerves. Even after he’d peed at Izayoi’s feet they’d made their fun pinching his cheeks and gushing over his ‘little legs’. “It wasn’t long after InuYasha was born that she admitted to loving me. So, why did she spend three years encouraging you to hate me?” 

“Despite the similarities, I am not my mother. Maybe she didn’t know how else to handle it all? Maybe she was simply venting. I only sought to give you a better understanding of the pain you caused her.” He elbowed her a bit, “now go to bed or go away. I wish to read.” 

She obeyed readily enough, her cooperation morphing with the strength of her yawn. Only a few moments had passed when he found himself asking, “Izayoi?” She hummed in reply, already nearly asleep, “what color is Sango’s hair?” 

“I sometimes forget that dogs don’t see red.” She giggled, “no wonder you hated the brown haired princesses. What changed?” 

He shrugged, “she shines. That’s all I know.” 

With another yawn she decided, “probably more bond magic. Either way, her hair is brown. Which is -for the record- unremarkable.” He snapped his book shut and moved to his bed. The sudden darkness did not take away from the fact that she was still perfectly visible. 

“Then you haven’t seen her. She is magnificent from every angle, gentle and fierce and beautiful as the dawn.” He ignored her giggle, setting to braiding his hair instead, “no part of her can be unremarkable.” 

“You sound quite taken with her.” 

He pulled a spare pillow over his face, letting his muffled words soak into the cotton, “there is no part of me that does not crave every velvet inch of her.” 

oOo

Sesshomaru woke a few hours later, buzzing with energy while Izayoi continued to sleep. He rooted around for his brush, opting to get dressed before rushing off to the library downstairs. The chance that he would be seen- despite the impossibly early morning- was too great of a chance to take. 

He made it out the window and down to the library in record time. 

“I have a favor to ask you.” InuYasha was sitting at his favorite table, a pile of books set to the side. 

Suspicious, he motioned for him to continue. 

“I don’t understand any of this. No matter what I read there’s always more questions. Father says that you only needed to be pointed in the right direction once, but-.” 

“You’re starting with books of theory when you don’t know the basics.” Sesshomaru motioned for the librarian to restock the pile InuYasha had surrounded himself with, “I didn’t require much instruction from father because I read the scrolls I could understand and sharpened my research skills.” 

That didn’t seem to be the answer he wanted. 

“I don’t have time for The Government and Me books. You know that as well as I do.” 

Sesshomaru paid him no mind, instead heading towards the business registry near the back of the library. Last night his dreams had been painted gold. Shimmering fabric and blazing eyes had possessed him so completely that he could not stand to sit upon the idea. 

But first? A dressmaker needed to be found. 

There were annotations next to each shop, average gross income, the percentage of taxes they paid, and -of course- ratings and comments compiled by the royal auditors. 

Shiori jumped off the page at him. Her dress shop wasn’t necessarily named as she’d just slapped her own name on the certificate, but the review gave him pause. Words like enchanting, otherworldly, and brilliant all stuck out to him in bolded print.

His decision was made and then he was digging through InuYasha’s bag, ignoring his protests as he fished out his set of colored charcoals and his pad of parchment. 

“Don’t open that,” he lunged for Sesshomaru, crashing into the table that separated them with no regard for the sanctity that libraries were so well known for. “Give it back, I swear-.” 

Obviously, that wasn’t happening. He took to the air, kicking InuYasha whenever he leapt too close. 

He dodged books and ink, flipping through magnificent sketches of birds and flowers. Some of the colors looked strange to him, but he could admire the skill it took to blend such an unruly medium. His own hand was not nearly so steady when it came to such nonsense. 

Sesshomaru slipped out the front, taking to the skies once more when InuYasha came running after him, his arms laden with projectiles. 

“Give me my shit,” a book clipped Sesshomaru’s shoulder, stinging where it managed to catch him. 

“What are you so afraid of, brother? Are you drawing naked women?” 

He flushed yellow, screaming in a way that was now incoherent. 

“What are you boys screaming about so early?” Toga stood at InuYasha’s side, watching the two with his brow quirked. 

“He took my sketchbook!” 

Toga snickered, “you’ve never cared before. What’s in there?” 

“Precisely what I’d like to know.” Sesshomaru flipped the page, finding a half colored rendering of a certain Princess. Naturally, he laughed. He landed next to his father, dodging another book, and passed off the sketchbook. “I do believe our darling InuYasha has been bewitched.”

He lived for the way his brother darkened. 

“Now, Sesshomaru,” Toga handed the book back to his eldest son, “having a crush is a wonderful thing. We can’t fault him for being taken with the fairer sex.” 

The window opened a few levels up and brown hair caught the wind, waving around her like a banner. She didn’t seem all that interested in them at the moment, but awe and amusement tickled his mind. 

InuYasha clocked him with a book and he was wrenched back into the present.

“Fuck me,” he grunted, “if you wanted to die all you had to do was ask,” InuYasha lunged for him, prepared to strangle him with his own two hands -if need be. 

Toga made no effort to get between them, instead grabbing the abandoned sketchbook and keeping it safe from the fistfight that had broken out around it. He didn’t often get the chance to see the inner workings of Sesshomaru’s mind. 

He was always so guarded, afraid to make a mistake, afraid of being judged as cruelly as he judged others. It was only in moments of pure delight that he got to see his son’s face soften. 

Sesshomaru had pinned InuYasha beneath his knee, unhindered by the same limitations that his half blooded brother labored beneath. His victorious little smirk lifted his lips a fraction and Toga lamented the loss of his honey eyed son. 

“I guess it’s true what they say,” he turned to continue his patrol around the wall, sparing a moment to gaze up at the dull yellow hair that played in the breeze. “We all find our mates eventually.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live for the implication that Izayoi makes Sesshomaru listen to her bad poems lol there’s more art up on my tumblr and my Twitter. Check it out if you wanna :) @fifthdimensionr on Twitter and @livinginthefifthdimension on tumblr 
> 
> Should I add links? Can I add links? I dunno


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